While it is customary among many tribes of Indians to use as little
clothing as possible when engaged in dancing, either of a social or
ceremonial nature, the Ojibwa, on the contrary, vie with one another in
the attempt to appear in the most costly and gaudy dress attainable. The
Ojibwa Midē´ priests, take particular pride in their appearance when
attending ceremonies of the Midē´ Society, and seldom fail to impress
this fact upon visitors, as some of the Dakotan tribes, who have adopted
similar medicine ceremonies after the custom of their Algonkian
neighbors, are frequently without any clothing other than the
breechcloth and moccasins, and the armlets and other attractive
ornaments. This disregard of dress appears, to the Ojibwa, as a
sacrilegious digression from the ancient usages, and it frequently
excites severe comment.
Apart from facial ornamentation, of such design as may take the actor’s
fancy, or in accordance with the degree of which the subject may be a
member, the Midē´ priests wear shirts, trousers, and moccasins, the
first two of which may consist of flannel or cloth and be either plain
or ornamented with beads, while the latter are always of buckskin, or,
what is more highly prized, moose skin, beaded or worked with colored
porcupine quills.
Immediately below each knee is tied a necessary item of an Ojibwa’s
dress, a garter, which consists of a band of beads varying in different
specimens from 2 to 4 inches in width, and from 18 to 20 inches in
length, to each end of which strands of colored wool yarn, 2 feet long,
are attached so as to admit of being passed around the leg and tied in a
bow-knot in front. These garters are made by the women in such patterns
as they may be able to design or elaborate. On Pl. XXIII are
reproductions of parts of two patterns which are of more than ordinary
interest, because of the symbolic signification of the colors and the
primitive art design in one, and the substitution of colors and the
introduction of modern designs in the other. The upper one consists of
green, red, and white beads, the first two colors being in accord with
those of one of the degree posts, while the white is symbolical of the
mī´gis shell. In the lower illustration is found a substitution of color
for the preceding, accounted for by the Midē´ informants, who explained
that neither of the varieties of beads of the particular color desired
could be obtained when wanted. The yellow beads are substituted for
white, the blue for green, and the orange and pink for red. The design
retains the lozenge form, though in a different arrangement, and the
introduction of the blue border is adapted after patterns observed among
their white neighbors. In the former is presented also what the Ojibwa
term the groundwork or type of their original style of ornamentation,
i.e., wavy or gently zigzag lines. Later art work consists chiefly of
curved lines, and this has gradually become modified through instruction
from the Catholic sisters at various early mission establishments until
now, when there has been brought about a common system of working upon
cloth or velvet, in patterns, consisting of vines, leaves, and flowers,
often exceedingly attractive though not aboriginal in the true sense of
the word.
[Illustration: Plate XXIII.
Midē´ Dancing Garters.]
Bands of flannel or buckskin, handsomely beaded, are sometimes attached
to the sides of the pantaloons, in imitation of an officer’s stripes,
and around the bottom. Collars are also used, in addition to necklaces
of claws, shells, or other objects.
Armlets and bracelets are sometimes made of bands of beadwork, though
brass wire or pieces of metal are preferred.
Bags made of cloth, beautifully ornamented or entirely covered with
beads, are worn, supported at the side by means of a broad band or
baldric passing over the opposite shoulder. The head is decorated with
disks of metal and tufts of colored horse hair or moose hair and with
eagle feathers to designate the particular exploits performed by the
wearer.
Few emblems of personal valor or exploits are now worn, as many of the
representatives of the present generation have never been actively
engaged in war, so that there is generally found only among the older
members the practice of wearing upon the head eagle feathers bearing
indications of significant markings or cuttings. A feather which has
been split from the tip toward the middle denotes that the wearer was
wounded by an arrow. A red spot as large as a silver dime painted upon a
feather shows the wearer to have been wounded by a bullet. The privilege
of wearing a feather tipped with red flannel or horse hair dyed red is
recognized only when the wearer has killed an enemy, and when a great
number have been killed in war the so-called war bonnet is worn, and may
consist of a number of feathers exceeding the number of persons killed,
the idea to be expressed being “a great number,” rather than a specific
enumeration.
Although the Ojibwa admit that in former times they had many other
specific ways of indicating various kinds of personal exploits, they now
have little opportunity of gaining such distinction, and consequently
the practice has fallen into desuetude.